BB: I don't really...I'm speechless.
Really proud of our football team. I thought that the players showed a lot
of mental toughness and physical toughness. San Diego is a great team. They
have a lot of great players. They're outstanding in every phase of the game
and I was really proud of the way that our guys stepped up and just battled
for sixty minutes. San Diego has been a great fourth quarter team, and we
certainly got everything they had, which was quite a bit. It was just every
single phase. Stephen [Gostkowski] did a great job kicking, no question
about that, made some key kicks...the whole operation and protection, Matt [Cassel], Lonie [Paxton]. Defensively we had some key stops, had a couple turnovers;
offensively we had a couple key drives—that drive at the end of the half
was a huge drive, at the end, picking up that third down. [Reche] Caldwell made a terrific play there [and Tom] Brady made a great throw. There were a
lot of great plays made both sides of the ball. It wasn't perfect by any
means. We had some trouble with them, as we would expect, and I think they
had a little bit of trouble with us somewhere along the line. We're happy to
win and looking forward to the next challenge next week against the Colts.
We know each game gets bigger and each opponent gets tougher, so that's what
we're going to have to be ready for in Indy.
Q: Troy Brown's strip on that one
interception...
BB: I think Troy Brown, the guy is a terrific football player. He does it
all. Hey, we just kept battling for sixty minutes. And that was obviously a
key play.
Q: Did you feel like you were back on your heels for a good portion of
the game?
BB: No. I felt like it was a very competitive game. I thought it was a
very competitive game. I thought there was an ebb and flow—at
times they had a little bit of the upper hand, sometimes we had a little bit
of the upper hand. But it was a dog fight. It was a physical, tough football
game—two teams competing their tails off against each other. And like I
said, we just made one more play at the end than they did.
Q: Your offensive line seemed to do an exceptional job protecting Tom.
BB: They've done a good job all year. Dan [Koppen] and the
backs and the line, they did a good job. Protection was tough; this is a
good pass rushing team. But I thought they stood up to them and they blocked
them. It wasn't perfect, but they blocked them pretty hard.
Q: What was the gameplan for LaDainian Tomlinson...anything special to stop him?
BB: We played what we thought was the best we had all game long. That's
what we did. Whatever we thought was the best, that's what we did.
Q: Was the idea that he would get
some yards?
BB: Well we weren't going to give them to him. We were going to make him
work for them. Hey, he's a great back. They're a good offense. Led the
league in scoring. I mean, they can move the ball. And they have a lot of
great players. So you just try to stand there and go toe-to-toe with them.
He certainly made some plays against us. I'm sure they wish they had made a
couple more.
Q: What did you think when [Marlon] McCree made that interception on the fourth down
play and you got the ball back at the end of the play?
BB: I thought it was a great play by our guys to strip the ball out and
come up with it. There were a couple of fumbles there where there was a big
pile-up, a lot of guys in there fighting for the ball, and we came away with
it. So you have to give our guys credit for coming up with the ball.
Q: Did you say anything to Gostkowski before the field goal?
BB: No.
Q: What prompted you to call the long shot to Reche?
BB: They were giving us a lot of press coverage in the latter part of the
game. When they're up there pressed it gives you some opportunities to go
deep. Tom did a good job, made a nice throw, and Reche was able to get a
just little separation, not much there on [Quentin] Jammer; he was pretty
well-covered. But it was a good throw and a good catch.
Q: The touchdown drive before the half was really critical...
BB: It was really critical to get back to being within a four point
game. We were down 14-3, so it was good to get those seven points. That was
the big thing.
Q: What gives you confidence in Tom to keep firing even though he has
those interceptions?
BB: I have confidence in this team. This team's a good team. They
play hard, they've won a lot of games. I have a
lot of confidence in them.
Q: When you came in here you mentioned you were speechless. What was it
about the game?
BB: Just looking up there in the fourth quarter—we
were down by eight, we were on a long field and backed up, and now
we're ahead by three. A lot of things had to go right, and a lot of them
did.
Q: On the direct snap to [Kevin] Faulk on the two-point conversion, is
that something that you had worked on?
BB: Yes, of course. We had a two-point play and that was pretty
well-executed. We kind of got a look and were able to...it was well-blocked. Kevin made a good cut.
Q: Was that the only two-point play
you were considering?
BB: We've had other two-point plays this year. You go into a game plan
with one or two two-point plays, and that was the one we selected.
Q: Would you also comment on Rosevelt Colvin's interception? He made an
acrobatic catch.
BB: Yes, he made a nice play. He really did. Made a real nice play on the
ball. I think just defensively, San Diego hasn't had that many turnovers all
year. I think they've only had fifteen the entire season. And what did we
get, four today? So I think that's a real credit to our defense to be able
to come up with those balls. They're pretty careful with it. They are not a
lot of opportunities. We got one on special teams and one on the defense
there on the strip, but just to come up with those plays, however you get
them is big for us in the game. But Rosie's done a good job for us all year,
and made a real nice play, real athletic play on that scramble pass, and
made a nice catch back over his shoulder. We dropped a lot of balls that are
right in our hands. That was a tough one.
Q: You threw the ball more than 50 times. Was that something you had in
mind when you...?
BB: No. That's just the way the game went. Again, we got in the game and
did what we felt like gave us the best chance to win. That's what we did.
Q: What's ahead in Indianapolis?
BB: It gets tougher every week. We didn't do very well against them
the last time we played them so hopefully we can do better this time. But
they're a great football team. They're playing great defense now, haven't
given up much of anything on the defensive side of the ball, [and] I think
we all know what kind of offense they have. They're tough at home, they have
great players, they're well-coached, so that will be a big challenge for us
to go into Indy and be competitive with them.
Q: Tom struggled. It wasn't one of his better playoff games...
BB: Tom's a good quarterback. There's no quarterback I'd rather
have. Nobody's going to play a perfect game—it's just
not going to happen. As much as Tom tries and everybody else tries,
in the end it's making more plays than the other team, and that's what it
came down to today. I give Tom and the rest of the offense a lot of credit
for coming out here, playing on the road, winning on the road, making plays
when we were down. That's what a winning team does. You can't make those
plays, you don't win. We made them today and fortunately we're able to move
on to next week.
Q: [Inaudible question about a fumble recovery]
BB: Obviously, the ball was mishandled. It was there on the ground.
Somebody dove in there...oh, Spann? OK. Antwain dove in there and knocked it
loose. Then there was a big pile-up. Of course, I couldn't see any more than
you could on that one; there were a hundred bodies on top of the ball. But
any time it's on the ground the play is to try to keep it alive. Handling
the ball in these conditions, and kicking it, is...that's part of the game.
Fortunately, we were able to take advantage of that muff and turn it into a
turnover. |
